Cockroach infestation drives family out of London, Ont., apartment

A London, Ont., family describes waking up to hundreds of cockroaches scattering across the floor in their apartmentas one of the last straws before deciding to abandon their home and belongings.

Joe Nipitella lived at 700 King St., a highrise in Old East Village, with his wife for five years. He says the roaches were there from the get-go, but got worse as the years went by.

"It was so badly infested," saysNipitella, who moved out with his wife in November. "My TV, everything was left there because I could not take it with us. My wife wouldn't let me take it."

The couple said they salvaged their clothes, but only after vacuum sealing them, washing them and sealing them again before leaving.

The building is owned by Medallion Corporation, and Nipitella said it actively sprayed for six months to try to deal with the infestation. During that period, the couple wasliving out of boxes.

But he saidthe spraying didn't work, and despite trying their own methods, the cockroaches kept coming back.

"I could wake up in the middle of night. Open the lights in the kitchen and, I'm not even exaggerating about 200 cockroaches would scatter."

Nipitella said the building's management wasunwilling to help further, prompting the couple to decide to leave and lookfor a new home in a tight rental market.

Medallion said in a statement that it "does not comment on reasons why residents leave."

When asked about the approach taken in Nipitella's unit, Medallion Corporation said it works "diligently to deal with any type of infestation" and it takes "all steps of proper pest control management."

Ridding a highrise of roaches

Michael Heimbach, director of business development with Abell Pest Control, saidtrying to rid a building of roaches isn't always so easy. It can be a lengthy and expensive process.

"It can take months to get rid of the problem," said Heimbach. "Depending on the level of infestation, it can be a very serious investment for a landlord to commit to.

"If it's a severe infestation, it's not something that you're going to get solved in a week."

He said every situation requires its own approach, but it starts with an assessment to see how to tackle the problem.

Heimbach explained that for a more isolated issue, they would want to not only target the affected units, but inspect or treat the ones above, below and beside them.

For buildings with a severe infestation, they'd begin the treatment at the top floor to "clear the floors out" and work their way down to try to eliminate the problem.

"It's generally going to take multiple efforts," he said of majorinfestations and involve close monitoring.

Twoother tenants living in the King Street building say cockroaches continue to be a problem in their units. They say pest control is there spraying but like Nipitella described, the insects don't go away.